Tracking Hurricane Matthew

A powerful Category 4 hurricane is churning through the Caribbean this weekend. Hurricane Matthew was packing 160 mph winds Friday night and looked to maintain its strength through the day Saturday as it approaches the southern tip of Cuba.

The National Hurricane Center expects the storm to weaken a bit, but maintain hurricane strength as it exits the Caribbean and moves into the Atlantic by the beginning of next week.

The latest track of the storm has it moving through the Bahamas next week and then possibly skirting the east coast of the U.S., impacting the Carolinas.

Long range forecast models differ somewhat on its path after it exits the Bahamas, but with plenty of warm open water and expected steering currents it could slam into the coast of New England late next week.

The First Alert Storm Tracking Team is monitoring this storm closely and will bring you further updates online and on the air as new data comes in. Also know that you can track the storm on your WMC Action News 5 Storm Tracker app. Just open the radar window and click the map overlays icon on the lower right side of your screen then select tropical tracks. You can also select tropical and marine alerts near the bottom of that menu.